BARBARA    FRITCHIE 


BY   THE    SAME    AUTHOR. 

WHAT  WE  REALLY  KNOW  ABOUT  SHAKE 
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THE  LIFE  OF  DR.  ANANDABAI  JOSHEE,  a 
Kinswoman  of  the  Pundita  Ramabai. 
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LETTERS  HOME  FROM  COLORADO,  UTAH, 
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ROBERTS    BROTHERS, 

Publishers. 


BARBARA     FRITCHIE. 

FROM     A      PHOTOGRAPH       BY       BYERLY. 


BARBARA    FRITCHIE 

a 


BY 


CAROLINE    H.    BALL 

AUTHOR  OF 

'THE  COLLEGE,  MARKET,  AND  COURT,"  "WHAT  WE  REALLY  KNOW 

ABOUT  SHAKESPEARE,"  "THE  LIFE   OF  ANANDABAI  JOSHEE " 

"LETTERS  HOME  FROM  COLORADO,  UTAH,  AND 

CALIFORNIA,"  ETC.,  ETC. 


Honor  to  her,  and  let  a  tear 

Fall  for  her  sake  on  Stonewall's  bier 

,  \.  Gf  WHITTIER 


BOSTON 
ROBERTS    BROTHERS 

1892 


-IP! 


Copyright,  1892, 
BY  ROBERTS  BROTHERS. 


JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON,  CAMBRIDGE,  U.S.A. 


PEEFACE. 


(History  of  the  Poem,  and  the  reason  why  these  pages 
have  been  written.) 

TN  December,  1862,  a  great-nephew 
of  John  Caspar  Fritchie,  returning 
to  Washington  after  an  extended  bridal 
tour,  went  to  Frederick  to  visit  his  rela 
tives,  and  arrived  just  in  time  to  attend 
Barbara  Fritchie's  funeral. 

The  account  of  the  funeral,  published 
in  the  local  Union  paper,  naturally  stim 
ulated  the  memories  of  the  German  resi 
dents,  and  Barbara's  various  exploits 
were  related. 

The  story  of  September  6th  interested 
her  nephew,  and  on  returning  to  his 
Georgetown  home  he  repeated  it  to  a 
brother. 


8  PREFACE. 

This  brother,  a  well-known  real-estate 
agent  in  Washington,  was  on  intimate 
terms  with  Mrs.  Southworth  the  novelist. 

Mrs.  Southworth  was  just  recovering 
from  a  severe  illness,  and  her  friend 
told  her  the  story  as  he  heard  it.  The 
statement  was  informal.  Nothing  was 
known  or  said  about  Jackson's  ordering 
his  troops  to  fire.  The  troops  fired ; 
Barbara  waved  the  flag  which  the  firing 
threw  down,  reproaching  the  men  for 
their  disloyalty,  and  the  stern  voice  of 
the  general  cried,  "  March  on  !  " 

The  vivid  imagination  of  Mrs.  South- 
worth  saw  the  possibilities  of  this  touch 
ing  story,  and  she  wrote  her  letter  to 
Whittier.  Whittier  was  fired  by  its  no 
ble  suggestions;  and  ignorant  of  Fred 
erick,  of  its  local  possibilities,  of  the 
constant  irregular  firing  upon  the  flag 
which  went  on  in  its  streets  and  neigh 
borhood,  gave  his  imagination  full  play. 
It  was  natural  that  he  should  think 


PREFACE.  9 

that  the  general  who  gave  the  order  to 
"•March  on!"  was  at  his  post  when  the 
disturbance  began.  Hardly  had  the  bal 
lad  been  printed  before  the  truth  of  the 
story  began  to  be  questioned  in  Mary 
land  and  Virginia  ;  and  as  the  rumors 
of  denial  grew  louder  and  louder,  Miss 
Dix,  from  her  post  in  the  hospitals,  wrote 
to  the  poet,  reaffirming  the  facts. 

The  two  parties  misunderstood  each 
other.  What  irritated  the  Southerners 
was  the  assertion  that  their  favorite 
general  ordered  his  men  to  fire  on  an 
aged  woman.  The  Northerner,  proud  of 
the  courageous  Barbara,  and  indifferent 
to  Jackson,  supposed  it  was  the  woman's 
heroism  that  offended,  and  so  nothing 
was  established ;  and  quite  lately  Whit- 
tier  told  a  friend  residing  in  Baltimore 
that  he  very  much  regretted  the  ballad, 
as  he  now  doubted  the  story,  and  that  it 
was  the  only  thing  he  had  ever  written 


10  PREFACE. 

for   the   truth  of    which   he   could   not 
vouch. 

Here  the  fishermen  of  Marblehead  step 
up  to  remind  him  of  Ffloyd  Ireson  ! 

But  Whittier  has  no  occasion  to  regret 
his  ballad.  Noble-hearted  Stonewall 
Jackson  neither  loses  nor  gains  by  the 
story,  and  would  willingly  spare  a  laurel- 
leaf  in  the  brave  old  German's  honor. 

In  1876,  fourteen  years  after  the 
events  related,  I  went  to  Frederick,  and 
satisfied  myself  that  the  story  was  true 
as  regarded  Barbara.  I  interviewed 
Valerius  Ebert,  in  whose  possession  I 
found  her  flag,  the  photographer  Byerly, 
Mrs.  Handshew,  and  other  connections 
of  Caspar  Fritchie  ;  but  I  relied  chiefly 
upon  Dr.  Lewis  H.  Steiner,  late  librarian 
of  the  Enoch  Pratt  Library,  for  the  de 
tails  which  filled  out  the  story. 

In  March,  1878,  I  published  the  story, 
as  I  understood  it,  in  a  magazine  printed 


PREFACE.  11 

at  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  and  called 
"  Sunday  Afternoon." 

Owing  to  the  facts  that  feelings  were 
still  exasperated,  and  Dr.  Steiner's  home 
still  in  Frederick,  I  was  not  at  liberty  to 
give  his  authority  as  freely  as  I  may  do 
now.  My  dear  friend  died  suddenly  in 
Baltimore  last  winter,  and  his  son  has, 
I  believe,  succeeded  to  his  post. 

The  magazine  had  a  limited  circula 
tion,  but  it  reached  Valerius  Ebert, 
whose  voluminous  letters  were  submitted 
to  Dr.  Steiner,  and  returned,  with  anno 
tations.  It  also  reached  John  Williams, 
a  soldier  in  Burnside's  corps  ;  and  his 
testimony  is  incorporated  into  the  fol 
lowing  sketch.  It  is  valuable  because 
it  shows  the  story  of  September  6th  cur 
rent  among  the  Rebels  in  Frederick  a 
few  days  after  it  occurred. 

In  1887,  Henry  Nixtorf,  a  German 
Unionist,  —  mentioned  more  than  once  in 


12  PREFACE. 

my  story,  —  published  his  "  Recollections 
of  Barbara,"  through  W.  T.  Delaplaine, 
of  Frederick.  Although  it  contains  some 
interesting  anecdotes,  this  volume  adds 
nothing  to  our  positive  knowledge,  ex 
cept  the  statement  that  the  flag  fluttered 
from  her  "  west  window "  as  long  as 
Barbara  lived. 

There  the  matter  seemed  likely  to  rest, 
until  Mrs.  Jackson  published,  last  winter, 
the  Memoir  of  her  husband,  in  which  she 
denies  distinctly  that  there  is  any  founda 
tion  for  the  ballad.  She  asserts  that  she 
makes  this  statement  —  and  she  does  it 
in  evident  good  faith  —  after  a  thor 
ough  inquiry  in  the  city  of  Frederick. 
Soon  after  this,  Dr.  Steiner  passed  away, 
and  I  was  at  liberty  to  speak  more 
freely. 

With  the  world  in  general,  Mrs.  Jack 
son's  statement,  mistakenly  supposed  to 
refer  to  Barbara,  will  seem  authorita- 


PREFACE.  13 

tive ;  but  Mrs.  Jackson  wished  only  to 
lift  from  her  husband's  brow  the  "  blush 
of  shame,"  with  which  the  poet's  imagi 
nation  had  remanded  him  to  the  "  Legion 
of  Honor." 

In  investigating  the  whole  subject 
again,  I  have  interviewed  by  letter  or  in 
person  all  those  whom  I  originally  con 
sulted.  Mrs.  Handshew  is  still  living, 
but  too  advanced  in  years  to  recall  her 
story.  I  have  got  such  information  as 
I  needed  from  the  two  brothers  who 
originally  told  it,  and  at  their  suggestion 
I  have  had  the  local  newspapers  searched. 
During  the  Civil  War  there  were  two 
newspapers  published  in  Frederick.  An 
exhaustive  examination  of  the  columns 
of  the  Union  paper  has  been  made  by 
Miss  Diehl,  of  Frederick,  extending  over 
three  years ;  but  it  has  yielded  only  the 
account  of  Barbara's  funeral,  of  which  I 
copy  here  the  conclusion  :  — 


14  PREFACE. 

"  Barbara  removed  to  this  city  when  a 
child.  She  remembered  the  signing  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  and  the  scenes 
of  the  Revolutionary  War ;  she  was  familiar 
with  the  career  of  Washington,  and  shared 
the  popular  joy  on  the  announcement  of 
peace. 

u  In  the  quiet  of  domestic  life  she  literally 
grew  up  with  the  nation's  growth,  and  partici 
pated  in  its  passing  history ;  in  middle  age 
she  witnessed  the  War  of  1812 ;  and  when  the 
sands  of  life  ran  low,  she  justly  regarded  the 
Rebellion,  which  now  hangs  like  a  cloud  over 
the  hopes  of  freemen,  as  the  saddest  expe 
rience  of  her  protracted  life. 

"  To  one  thus  strangely  identified  with  the 
origin  and  growth  of  the  Republic,  loyalty 
necessarily  became  a  deep-seated  sentiment ; 
and  when  the  Rebels  were  expelled  from  this 
city,  on  the  memorable  12th  of  September,  this 
venerable  lady,  as  a  last  act  of  devotion,  stood 
at  her  front  door  and  waved  the  glorious  star- 
spangled  banner  in  token  of  welcome  to  our 
deliverers.  On  Sunday  last  her  mortal  re 
mains  were  interred  in  the  cemetery  of  the 
Evangelical  Reformed  Church,  of  which  she 


PREFACE.  15 

was  a  consistent  and  exemplary  member  for 
more  than  forty  years."1 

I  have  corresponded  with  the  present 
pastor  of  the  church  here  alluded  to,  and 
it  does  not  seem  likely  that  any  more 
detailed  account  of  the  events  of  Septem 
ber  6th  will  ever  be  accessible,  unless, 
as  has  frequently  happened  in  matters 
of  greater  moment,  some  dead  soldier's 
diary  should  reveal  it  to  posterity.  Bar 
bara  Fritchie  did  not  preserve  the  Ger 
man  spelling  of  her  name,  and  I  spell  it 
here  as  it  is  spelled  on  her  monument  in 
the  graveyard  at  Frederick. 

CAROLINE  HEALEY  DALL. 

1526  Eighteenth  Street,  N.W., 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

1  From  the  "  Weekly  Examiner/'  Dec.  27, 1862. 


BAEBARA  FRITCHIE. 


PART  I. 


in  America  knows  the 
story  of  "  The  Man  without  a  Coun 
try,"  and  remembers  how  its  author  was 
beset  with  inquiries  as  to  the  real  name 
and  origin  of  the  hero,  Philip  Nolan, 
who  was  born  and  lived  in  the  imagina 
tion  of  Edward  Everett  Hale  alone. 

The  experience  is  not  peculiar.  If  in 
literature  any  author  is  so  venturesome 
as  to  make  use  of  a  fact7  its  probability 
is  at  once  questioned.  If  he  give  the 
rein  to  imagination,  he  is  as  speedily 
called  upon  for  names  and  dates. 

No  one  could  help  observing  this  in 
the  Centennial  year,  for  among  the 


18  BARBARA   FRITCHIE. 

many  foreigners  who  visited  Philadel 
phia,  a  large  number  travelled  to  Freder 
ick  to  ascertain  the  whereabouts  of 
Barbara  Fritchie ;  and  during  that  sum 
mer  the  Northern  papers  teemed  with 
descriptions  of  the  localities  connected 
with  the  purely  ideal  story  of  "  Evange- 
line."  Standing  in  the  little  cottage 
attached  to  the  Quaker  almshouse  in 
Philadelphia,  which  was  pulled  down 
that  very  summer,  I  saw  a  lady  take 
an  old  engraving  from  the  shivering 
wall  and  murmur,  "I  wish  I  knew 
whether  Evangeline  ever  saw  this !  " 

The  author  of  the  ideal  may  well  be 
moved  by  any  such  tribute  to  his  power ; 
but  the  man  who  idealizes  the  historic 
must  needs  be  vexed  by  the  treatment 
the  world  bestows  upon  his  effort. 

For  myself,  I  offer  no  thanks  to  him 
who  attempts  to  turn  William  Tell  into 
a  solar  myth.  He  is  mine,  and  I  will 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  19 

not  give  him  up.  So  is  the  blind  Homer 
of  tradition,  whether  he  were  a  poet  in 
his  own  right,  or  merely  a  wandering 
harper  who  collected  and  chanted  the 
epics  of  the  past. 

Moved  by  such  feelings,  in  November, 
1875,  I  published  in  the  "New  York  In 
dependent  "  a  vindication  of  the  truth  of 
Whittier's  story,  drawn  from  antecedent 
probability,  quoting  in  my  own  support  a 
journal  published  by  Dr.  Lewis  H.  Steiner, 
of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  before  the 
publication  of  Whittier's  ballad.  I  had 
heard  soldiers  of  both  armies  assert  that 
they  had  seen  old  Barbara  wave  the  flag ; 
and  as  I  did  not  know,  at  the  time  these 
assertions  were  made,  that  the  story 
would  ever  be  seriously  questioned,  as 
indeed  I  did  not  guess  any  question  to 
be  possible,  it  seemed  best  to  restate 
the  supposed  facts  in  the  lifetime  of  the 
author,  and  so  challenge  final  confir 
mation  or  denial. 


20  BARBARA   FRITCH1E. 

My  article  did  very  little  good.  In 
the  following  May  the  Philadelphia 
"  Press  "  contained  another  on  the  oppo 
site  side.  The  point  of  this  paper  was 
different  from  any  I  had  attempted  to 
meet.  The  "Press"  denied  that  a  bullet 
or  volley  of  bullets  cut  away  Barbara's 
staff;  and  this  is  certainly  true.  But 
does  anybody  care  whether  it  did  or 
no  ?  What  I  would  assert  is,  that  this 
gray-haired  woman,  ninety-five  years  and 
nine  months  old,  stirred  by  the  approach 
of  the  Rebel  army,  mounted  the  short 
stairway  which  led  to  her  attic,  and 
waved  her  flag  in  the  face  of  the  advanc 
ing  foe.  It  was  the  dim  dawn  of  a  Sep 
tember  morning.  No  sympathetic  Rebels 
had  crept  out  into  the  narrow  street. 
Only  a  few  convalescents  from  the  hos 
pital  watched  the  advance  from  the 
bridge.  The  sight  of  Barbara  raised  the 
coarse  ire  of  some  of  the  men,  and  their 


BARBARA    FRITCHIE.  21 

lifted  guns  and  uplifted  voices  were 
lowered  at  Stonewall  Jackson's  stern 
command. 

Why  is  it  that  human  hearts  are  so 
dead  to  the  heroic?  One  would  think 
that  at  the  first  glimpse  of  this  noble 
story  every  eye  would  gleam,  every 
bosom  would  throb  with  exulting  sym 
pathy  !  The  ballad  belongs  to  that  class 
of  poems  which  the  world  will  never 
willingly  let  die.  How  does  it  happen, 
then,  that  so  many  persons  are  anxious 
to  disprove,  not  merely  the  waving  of 
the  flag,  but  the  very  existence  of 
Barbara  Fritchie  ? 

I  will  give  a  double  answer  to  this 
question.  I  will  tell  the  story  as  I 
understand  it,  as  simply  as  if  it  had 
never  been  doubted ;  and  then  I  will  ex 
plain  the  state  of  things  among  her  own 
relatives  and  townspeople,  which  made 
its  denial  possible  in  Frederick  itself,  — 


22  BARBARA   FRITCH1E. 

Frederick,  lifted  into  sudden  illumination 
for  Barbara's  sake. 

Many  a  time  and  oft  had  I  desired  to 
go  to  Frederick.  Partly  because  it  was 
a  lovely  little  gem,  set  in  a  circle  of  his 
toric  hills,  like  Nazareth  of  old.  Partly 
because  Judge  Taney  was  buried  at  the 
Jesuit  Novitiate  there,  and  I,  a  Protes 
tant  Abolitionist,  had  a  tender  feeling 
for  this  Catholic  Southerner,  now  he 
was  no  longer  able  to  fulminate  un 
righteous  decisions,  because  he  asked 
when  dying  to  be  laid  next  his  mother 
Monica,  whose  body  had  been  moulder 
ing  for  more  than  fifty  years  in  that 
cemetery.  In  Frederick  also,  under  the 
shade  of  lovely  cypresses,  rested  the  body 
of  Francis  S.  Key,  author  of  the  "  Star- 
Spangled  Banner ; "  and  here  also  I  meant 
to  trace  the  fast-vanishing  footsteps  of 
Whittier's  Barbara. 

But   when   I   was   ordered    into    the 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  23 

mountains  of  Maryland  for  my  health, 
I  forgot  all  these  things.  Ill  of  a  low 
malarial  fever,  I  went  dreamily  about 
the  old  town,  gazing  at  the  queer  roofs 
where  the  shingles  had  a  double  lap 
which  made  them  look  like  old  Dutch 
tiles.  Each  shingle  bound  down  not 
merely  the  one  beneath  it,  but  that  on 
its  own  left ;  and  the  shadows  ran  up 
and  down  as  well  as  across  the  roof. 
Dr.  Steiner  said  that  these  shingles  were 
of  oak  and  hand-made,  being  thinned 
with  a  spoke-shave  or  a  drawing  knife 
towards  both  overlapping  edges. 

One  day  I  was  making  a  call  in  the 
friendly  neighborhood,  when  I  heard  a 
bright  young  voice  carolling  to  itself  : 

"  Round  about  them  orchards  sweep, 
Apple  and  peach  tree,  fruited  deep." 

"  What !  "  I  exclaimed,  "  a  saucy  young 
rebel  like  you  singing  the  story  of 
Barbara  Fritchie?" 


24  BARBARA  FRITCHIE. 

"  There  never  was  a  Barbara/'  she 
pouted  ;  "  but  the  poet  loved  our  Mary 
land!" 

I  went  home  and  told  this  story.  I 
was  staying  with  dear  friends,  reputed 
Unionists.  No  one  thought  of  blaming 
them  because  their  sympathies  were  more 
than  half  with  the  land  and  people 
among  whom  they  had  been  reared, 
rather  than  with  the  troops  who  had 
pillaged  and  oppressed  them.  I  found 
that  they  too  doubted  the  existence  of 
Barbara,  and  then  I  spurred  myself  to 
inquire.  It  is  pleasant  to  remember  that 
one  of  the  unbelieving  ladies  of  the 
household  went  herself  to  Mrs.  Handshew, 
and  asked  the  questions  which  have 
made  it  possible  to  write  this  story. 

I  began  to  hear  of  relics,  of  the  close- 
hidden  flag,  of  oaken  bits  cut  from  the 
plank  of  the  iron-wood  stretcher  over 
which  Caspar  Fritchie  used  to  strain  his 


BARBARA    FRITCH1E.  25 

skins.  One  night  the  delicate  hand  of 
a  Southern  lady  sawed  a  bit  of  oak  in 
two,  and  so  divided  for  me  her  few 
inches  of  the  door-sill  over  which  Bar 
bara's  resolute  foot  had  so  often 
journeyed. 

In  the  spring  of  1876  there  was  living 
in  Frederick  a  Mrs.  Handshew,  or  more 
properly  Handschuh.  As  far  as  I  have 
been  able  to  ascertain,  Barbara  had  no 
blood-relatives  living  when  she  died ; 
but  Mrs.  Handshew  had  been  with  her 
for  some  time,  and  nursed  her  in  her  last 
sickness.  She  was  a  niece  of  Barbara's 
husband,  Caspar  Fritchie. 

Barbara  left  all  her  personal  property 
to  this  woman,  except  her  father's  Bible ; 
that  she  gave  to  a  Mrs.  Mergardt.  This 
Bible  is  an  ordinary  quarto,  very  thick, 
and  of  a  form  familiar  to  most  persons 
half  a  century  ago.  It  is  bound  in  calf ; 
the  sides  are  oak  boards,  and  it  was 


26  BARBARA    FRITCHIE. 

printed  in  German  by  Christoph  Sauer, 
Germantown,  Pa.,  in  1743.  It  is  in  good 
preservation,  and  the  only  writing  in  it 
is  to  be  found  on  the  inside  of  the  front 
cover,  where  the  following  sentence  is 
written  in  German :  "  This  Bible  belongs 
to  Niclaus  Hauer,  born  in  Nassau-Saar- 
brucken,  in  Dillendorf,  Aug.  6, 1733,  who 
left  Germany  May  11,  1754,  and  arrived 
in  Pennsylvania  October  1,  of  the  same 
year." 

This  inscription  tells  all  that  can  now 
be  known  of  the  father  of  Barbara  Frit- 
chie.  She  never  had  a  child,  and  no  one 
of  her  husband's  relatives  knows  her 
mother's  name. 

Barbara  was  born  in  Lancaster,  Pa., 
where  her  father  first  settled,  on  the 
3d  of  December,  1766,  or  one  hundred 
and  twenty-five  years  ago.  He  moved 
his  family  to  Frederick  much  later.  I 
could  not  ascertain  the  exact  date,  but 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  27 

from  his  connection  with  the  Fritchies 
it  seems  certain  that  it  was  before  the 
close  of  the  Revolutionary  War. 

On  the  6th  of  May,  1806,  when  she 
was  nearly  forty  years  of  age,  Barbara 
married  John  Caspar  Fritchie,  who  was 
fourteen  years  younger  than  herself. 

The  service  was  performed  in  Frederick 
City  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wagner,  of  the 
German  Reformed  Church.  It  would  not 
have  been  at  all  singular  if  Barbara  had 
never  married ;  for  although  she  was  an 
active,  capable  woman,  mistress  of  many 
generous  enthusiasms,  she  had,  as  all  con 
fess,  a  sharp  tongue.  In  his  Report  to  the 
Sanitary  Commission,  printed  in  1862,  Dr. 
Steiner  publishes  a  diary  of  the  Rebel 
occupation  of  Frederick.  Jackson's  corps 
were  recruiting,  and  under  date  of  Tues 
day,  September  9th,  he  says,  "  A  clergy. 
man  tells  me  that  he  saw  an  aged 
crone  come  out  of  her  house,  as  certain 


28  BARBARA    FR1TCHIE. 

Rebels  passed  by,  trailing  the  American 
flag  in  the  dust.  She  shook  her  long, 
skinny  hands  at  the  traitors,  and 
screamed,  at  the  top  of  her  voice,  '  My 
curses  be  upon  you  and  your  officers  for 
degrading  your  country's  flag ! '  Ex 
pression  and  gesture  were  worthy  of  Meg 
Merrilies." 

When  Dr.  Steiner  sent  me  his  report, 
he  marked  this  passage,  and  told  me 
privately  that  this  was  Barbara,  three 
days  after  Jackson's  men  had  fired  on 
her  flag.  It  is  not  likely  that  her  spirit 
was  less  bold  in  her  early  youth,  and 
I  was  a  little  curious  to  know  why,  if 
she  married  at  that  mature  age,  it  must 
needs  be  a  boy  fourteen  years  younger 
than  herself.  I  could  learn  only  one 
central  fact,  —  a  fact  honorable  to  Bar 
bara  and  her  family,  and  in  keeping  with 
what  we  know  of  her  later  life.  The 
father  of  Caspar  Fritchie  had  been  a 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  29 

Tory,  sentenced  by  the  laws  of  Maryland 
to  be  "  hung,  drawn,  and  quartered,  his 
estates  being  confiscated." 

The  first  part  of  this  sentence  was 
executed.  Owing  to  the  intercession  of 
friends,  probably  of  Niclaus  Hauer  him 
self,  the  confiscation  was  remitted^  and 
whatever  property  he  had  was  given  to 
his  widow  to  aid  her  in  bringing  up  her 
children.  Caspar  was  born  in  1780j  and 
it  is  likely  that  his  mother  died  early, 
for  Barbara  is  said  to  have  "  brought  up  " 
a  brother  and  sister  of  her  husband. 

Caspar  Fritchie  became  a  somewhat 
noted  person  in  that  locality.  He  was 
a  glove-maker;  and  if  Barbara  did  not 
own  the  little  cottage  in  which  they 
lived,  he  must  have  bought  it  and  fitted 
it  up  for  his  trade  soon  after  his  mar 
riage.  It  not  only  stood  upon  the  very 
edge  of  the  creek  which  crosses  the 
principal  street  of  the  town  and  separates 


30  BARBARA    FRITCHIE. 

tiny  Frederick  City  from  the  Bentztown 
road,  but  the  shop  in  which  he  worked 
overhung  the  creek,  so  that  when  he 
trimmed  his  skins,  the  clippings  were 
swept  through  a  trap  into  the  creek  it 
self.  A  sort  of  wooden  balcony  led  back 
from  the  street  across  the  end  of  the 
house  to  this  shop,  the  balcony  also  pro 
jecting  over  the  water.  I  am  particular 
in  describing  this,  because  the  fact  that 
the  house  overhung  the  creek  is  the  one 
circumstance  which  made  her  defiance 
of  the  Confederate  army  possible,  even 
though  that  "  army  never  passed  through 
Frederick."  Maryland,  Kentucky,  Penn 
sylvania,  and  Ohio  all  wanted  the  gloves 
which  Caspar  Fritchie  made  for  riding, 
driving,  and  hunting.  He  was  an  ex 
cellent  workman,  and  well  known  to  his 
best  customers,  the  gentry  of  the  neigh 
boring  counties.  He  died  in  his  seven 
tieth  year,  Nov.  10th,  1849,  thirteen 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  31 

years  before  the  wife  who  was  so  much 
older  than  he  that  she  might  have  been 
his  mother.  His  death  left  Barbara 
very  well  off,  but  she  did  not  change 
her  simple  way  of  living. 

Every  afternoon  she  might  be  seen 
sitting  in  the  window  of  her  little  cot 
tage,  knitting-needles  in  hand.  She 
wore  a  black  satin  gown,  with  a  clear 
starched  muslin  kerchief  crossed  over  her 
breast.  She  had  a  lady-like,  quiet  air. 
Long  before  anybody  had  heard  of  a 
photograph,  Barbara  Fritchie  had  her 
daguerreotype  taken.  This  picture 
shows  her  between  fifty  and  sixty  years 
of  age,  wearing  a  close  cap  and  the 
costume  which  I  have  described,  and 
which  she  never  changed.  She  looks 
very  much  like  the  traditional  New 
England  grandmother,  reared  under  the 
shadows  of  the  Puritan  church ;  and  the 
first  feeling  that  I  had  about  the  face, 


32  BARBARA   FRITCHIE. 

was  that  it  was  very  familiar,  and  not  at 
all  German. 

Stem  and  somewhat  cold  she  looked ; 
but  her  eye  was  clear  and  true,  and  one 
saw  in  a  moment  how  a  little  fun  or  a 
warm  love  might  melt  down  the  harsh 
lines. 

She  had  living  with  her  at  this  time 
and  until  her  death,  her  niece,  Harriet 
Yorner,  more  properly  Jahner,  born  on 
the  4th  of  May,  1797.  Barbara's  first 
trouble  after  her  husband's  death  grew 
out  of  her  patriotic  devotion  to  the 
Union. 

Caspar  Fritchie's  will  was  drawn  up 
by  Dr.  Albert  Ritchie,  of  Frederick,  who 
was  also  his  executor.  Barbara  had  only 
a  life  tenure  in  the  estate,  and  after  Dr. 
Ritchie's  death  in  1857,  the  laws  of 
Maryland  devolved  the  duties  of  admin 
istration  upon  his  three  nephews,  the 
acting  administrator  being  Valerius  Ebert, 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  33 

who  turned  out  what  Barbara  called  an 
"  arrant  Rebel."  Every  time  she  re 
ceived  her  dividends,  they  had  some 
sharp  words.  She  had  entered  the  last 
decade  of  her  century,  and  she  wished  to 
live  in  peace ;  so  she  went  to  one  of  the 
oldest  and  most  respected  of  the  German 
residents,  the  father  of  the  late  Dr. 
Lewis  H.  Steiner,  afterwards  well  known 
in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  as  an  active 
inspector  under  the  Sanitary  Commission, 
and  at  the  last  the  highly  prized  libra 
rian  of  the  Enoch  Pratt  Library  in  Balti 
more.  The  older  Steiner  was  a  shrewd 
business  man,  and  the  "  arrant  Rebel  r 
asserts  that  Barbara  had  made  savings 
which  she  wished  him  to  invest,  "this  be 
ing  no  part  of  the  administrator's  duty." 

At  all  events,  he  was  a  conspicuous 
member  of  Barbara's  own  church,  —  a 
ruling  elder.  She  begged  him  to  take 
her  power  of  attorney  and  receive  her 


34  BARBARA  FRITCHIE. 

money.  Now,  Frederick  is  a  small  city, 
and  even  in  1876  it  had  many 
cliques.  Its  people  are  Northern  as  well 
as  Southern,  German  as  well  as  English 
born,  Protestant  as  well  as  Catholic. 
Mr.  Steiner  was  very  unwilling  to  inter 
fere,  but  he  could  not  well  refuse,  so  he 
continued  to  transact  Barbara's  business 
until  his  death. 

Some  time  before  the  breaking  out  of 
the  war,  he  had  a  stroke  of  paralysis,  from 
which  he  entirely  recovered.  Lewis,  who 
was  either  at  college  or  the  medical 
school,  and  who  had  so  far  known  very 
little  of  his  townspeople,  was  sent  for  to 
attend  him.  The  first  time  Mr.  Steiner 
was  able  to  walk  out,  he  told  Lewis  that 
he  had  some  money  that  must  be  paid 
'to  Frau  Fritchie,  and  asked  him  to  make 
out  a  receipt  for  her  to  sign. 

"  Frau    Fritchie "    suggested    to    the 
young  student  one  of  the  old  German 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  35 

women  whom  he  had  often  seen  hoe 
ing  in  their  gardens,  and  ignorant  of 
letters,  so  he  not  only  made  out  the 
receipt,  but  signed  it  in  such  a  way  as 
to  leave  room  for  Barbara's  "mark." 

When  his  father  ushered  him  into  the 
presence  of  the  black  satin  gown  and 
starched  neckerchief,  he  must  have  been 
a  little  startled;  but  his  heart  did  not 
fail  him.  He  courteously  presented  the 
pen.  Barbara  took  it,  pushed  back  her 
gold  spectacles,  and  looked  at  the  signa 
ture.  "  Bless  you,  honey,"  she  exclaimed, 
bending  a  humorous  look  on  the  young 
fellow,  "bless  you!  I  wrote  my  name 
as  well  as  that  long  before  you  were 
born!"  and  drawing  her  pen  through 
Lewis's  signature,  she  wrote  her  name 
firmly  beneath. 

I  drew  this  story  out  of  my  friend 
by  asking  whether  he  had  not  an  auto 
graph  of  Barbara.  "  I  have  had  a  great 


36  BARBARA   FRITCHIE. 

many,"  he  said;  "but  I  have  kept  only 
this  one,  and  nothing  would  induce  me 
to  part  with  that ;  "  and  then  he  showed 
me  the  receipt  in  question.  I  think  it 
was  framed,  and  hanging  on  the  wall 
of  his  study. 

In  this  way  our  Barbara  lived,  doing 
her  own  work,  with  only  Harriet  Yorner 
to  help,  until  the  war  broke  out,  when 
she  must  have  been  nearly  ninety-five 
years  old.  Then  she  found  enough  to 
do  in  cheering  and  helping  sick  sol 
diers  and  despairing  Unionists.  She 
went  in  and  out  of  her  own  door  many 
times  a  day.  If  she  found  it  difficult 
to  get  up  or  down  for  the  litter  of  idle 
soldiers  that  cumbered  the  steps,  she 
was  still  strong  enough  to  strike  right 
and  left  with  her  stout  cane,  shouting, 
in  Shakspearian  fashion,  "  Off  !  off !  you 
lousy  Kebels !  " 

In  the  winter  of  1861  and  1862,  when 


BARBARA   FRIT C HIE.  37 

things  looked  badly  enough  for  the  cause 
of  the  Union,  she  went  about  helping 
and  cheering.  Henry  Nixtorf,  a  Lu 
theran,  well  known  for  sturdy  piety  and 
patriotism,  would  tell  with  tears  in  his 
eyes  how,  after  every  bit  of  bad  news, 
she  would  come  into  his  shop,  and  strik 
ing  the  ground  with  her  cane,  cry  out, 
"  Never  mind,  Harry,  we  must  conquer 
sometime  !  '  This  winter  Barbara 
bought  a  small  silk  flag,  about  eigh 
teen  inches  by  twelve,  not  too  heavy 
for  her  aged  arm  to  hold,  while  the 
breeze  that  waved  it,  stirred  also  her 
own  memories  of  seventy-six.  "  It  will 
never  happen,"  she  was  heard  to  say, 
"  that  one  short  life  like  mine  shall 
see  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  a 
nation  like  this." 

Harriet  Yorner  was  sixty-five  years 
old  when  Barbara  bought  her  flag,  and 
she  was  very  timid,  shrinking  from  the 


38  BARBARA   FRITCHIE. 

sight  of  soldiers  of  either  party.  She 
had  reason  enough  to  do  so.  The  in 
habitants  of  cities  like  New  York  or 
Boston  have  very  little  idea  what  the 
residents  of  the  little  town  of  Frederick 
were  called  upon  to  endure  that  winter. 
Soldiers  of  both  armies  were  constantly 
in  the  way ;  a  shot  drew  nobody  to  the 
window,  but  drove  timid  people  to  their 
hiding-places.  Skirmishes  and  duels 
were  frequent  in  the  narrow  streets 
which  hands  could  almost  stretch 
across. 

It  was  just  before  sunrise  on  Satur 
day,  September  6th,  1862,  that  the 
advance  guard  of  Lee's  army,  under 
Stonewall  Jackson,  came  down  the 
Bentztown  road.  I  do  not  mean  that 
the  advance  entered  Frederick,  —  it  cer 
tainly  did  not ;  but  Stonewall  Jackson 
did.  A  little  while  before  the  troops 
came  within  sight  of  Barbara's  window, 


N 


OF  HOU5E  AND  ClTY  OF  FREDERICK  FROM  MEMORY 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  41 

the  general  dropped  out  of  the  line, 
and  entering  the  town,  thrust  a  little 
note  under  the  door  of  a  friend  a  few 
squares  away.  The  note  was  simply 
to  tell  Dr.  Ross,  the  Presbyterian  min 
ister,  that  he  would  meet  him  at  church 
the  next  day.  How  he  regained  his 
position  at  the  head  of  his  command  no 
one  now  living  certainly  knows,  but  it  is 
not  likely  that  he  could  penetrate  the 
file  crowding  down  the  narrow  road. 
Dr.  Steiner  asserted  that  he  spurred  his 
horse  up  a  wide  alley  to  Patrick  Street, 
and  that  he  was  met  by  a  townsman  as 
he  did  so.  Crossing  the  bridge  built 
over  the  creek,  he  must  have  passed 
directly  under  Barbara's  window.  If 
the  rudeness  of  his  soldiers  ever  drew 
his  attention,  it  was  at  this  point,  and 
here  must  his  voice  have  rung  out, 
"  March  on ! "  in  the  ears  of  his  start 
led  men.  So  much  for  the  general's 


42  BARBARA  FRITCHIE. 

part  in  the  matter,  by  which  I  indi 
cate  the  least  he  could  have  done. 

How  did  it  happen  that  the  army  did 
not  enter  Frederick,  if  the  general  did  ? 
The  question  is  easily  answered.  The 
creek  which  ran  by  the  end  of  Barbara's 
house,  and  which  in  the  olden  time  swept 
away  the  trimmings  of  Caspar's  skins, 
forms  the  boundary  between  Frederick 
City  and  Frederick  County,  of  which 
county  that  little  town  is  only  the 
nucleus.  Just  across  the  creek  is  a 
narrow  lane  called  the  "  Benztown  road," 
which  makes  an  angle  with  the  creek  at 
the  bridge,  and  then  sweeps  along  nearly 
in  a  line  with  it. 

For  quite  a  distance  before  the  army 
reached  the  bridge,  it  must  have  been 
visible  from  the  attic  window  on  the 
west  side  of  Barbara's  house.  It  is  not 
likely  that  she  had  been  asleep  that 
night.  Everybody  knew  that  the  troops 


•s 


<u 

O       2 
ffi       2 


S    s 


U     J5 

H 


&     .=, 
h 


BARBARA   FRITCH1E.  43 

were  on  their  way.  She  would  be  one 
of  the  first  to  look  out  for  Stonewall 
Jackson.  It  has  been  said  that  she  was 
not  able  to  leave  her  room  at  this  time. 
This  was  entirely  untrue ;  but  if  it  had 
been  otherwise,  does  not  every  woman 
know  what  sort  of  strength  it  was  that 
would  have  carried  her  up  that  short 
flight  of  stairs  in  the  dim  light  of  that 
September  morning,  leaning  on  her  well- 
known  staff  ? 

The  house  consisted  of  a  single  storey, 
with  some  attic  chambers  over  it.  Its 
stairs  were  easy.  The  flag  was  already 
in  the  window,  as  her  friends  assert,  and 
had  been  there  ever  since  the  previous 
winter;  and  what  happened  while  the 
old  woman  stood  beside  it,  soldiers  on 
both  sides,  men  in  the  Confederate  ad 
vance,  and  a  few  Union  soldiers  from 
the  hospital,  have  already  told. 

Harriet  Yorner  was  saying  her  prayers 


44  BARBARA    FRITCHIE. 

on  the  lower  floor,  with  her  face  hidden 
behind  Barbara's  own  bed,  and  got 
roundly  scolded  for  her  cowardice  later, 
as  she  herself  told  Mrs.  Handshew.  Bar 
bara  was  only  doing  as  she  had  done 
ever  since  the  war  began.  The  Unionists 
of  English  descent  were  absolutely  igno 
rant  of  and  indifferent  to  the  German 
population.  It  would  be  hard  to  tell 
what  occasioned  the  bitter  feeling  which 
existed  between  the  two  races,  if  it  were 
not  for  the  fact  that  the  Hessian  mer 
cenaries  taken  prisoner  by  our  troops 
during  the  War  of  the  Revolution  were 
sent  to  Frederick.  Some  of  them  mar 
ried  there ;  and  however  their  de 
scendants  may  fare  in  the  future,  the 
Hessians  were  hated  then,  and  the  early 
German  residents  shared  their  fate. 
A  few  shots  more  or  less  made  so  little 
difference  to  Barbara  that  she  was  not 
likely  to  tell  the  story.  In  those  excit- 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  45 

ing  hours,  one  anxiety  soon  drove  out 
another.  That  she  stood  by  her  flag, 
was  insulted  for  doing  it,  as  was  certain 
to  be  the  case  in  those  days,  and  that 
the  general  himself  came  to  the  rescue, 
would  seem  sufficiently  certain  to  who 
ever  investigated  the  story  on  the  spot, 
in  the  spring  of  1876. 

Who  could  have  witnessed  the  scene 
besides  the  actors  in  it  ?  Only  the  few 
convalescents  from  the  hospital  to  whom 
I  have  alluded  ;  for  the  houses  of  the  citi 
zens  were  not  yet  open,  nor  was  Barbara 
visible  to  any  one  within  the  city  limits. 
The  story  was  told  to  Miss  Dix  in  the 
hospital  at  Frederick,  and  on  her  return 
to  Washington  she  confirmed  it  in  a 
letter  to  Whittier. 

Engelbrecht,  the  mayor  of  the  little 
town  at  a  later  period,  lived  in  a  house 
on  Patrick  Street,  directly  opposite 
Barbara. 


46  BARBARA    FRITCHIE. 

Prof.  Samuel  Tyler,  the  author  of  a 
Life  of  Chief  Justice  Taney,  addressed 
some  inquiries  to  the  mayor  as  to  the 
truth  of  this  story. 

In  a  letter  dated  June  30th,  1875, 
Engelbrecht  replied  in  substance  that  he 
was  at  his  own  window  when  General 
Lee  passed  the  front  of  Mrs.  Fritchie's 
house,  where  his  whole  army  halted 
while  the  advance  under  Jackson  passed 
down  the  Bentztown  road,  and  he  saw 
neither  Barbara  nor  her  flag.  Why 
should  he  ?  This  was  on  Wednesday, 
September  10th,  when  the  Confederates 
were  leaving  the  town.  Barbara  con 
fronted  the  advance  on  Saturday,  Sep 
tember  6th,  as  ifc  passed  on  to  its  en 
campment.  Nor  could  Engelbrecht  have 
seen  her  under  any  circumstances  in  his 
own  house.  The  side  window  in  the  attic 
from  which  she  waved  her  flag  fronted 
the  Bentztown  road,  and  was  invisible 
to  any  one  at  Engelbrecht's. 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  47 

Professor  Tyler,  in  communicating  this 
to  Miss  Boyle,  asserted  that  Stonewall 
Jackson  did  not  pass  Barbara's  house, 
—  and  I  willingly  admit  that  he  did  not, 
on  the  10th  of  September ;  but  the  pro 
fessor  then  goes  on  to  say  that  on  that 
day  he  left  the  following  note  under  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Ross's  door  on  Second  Street : 

Regret  not  being  permitted  to  see  Dr. 
and  Mrs.  Ross,  but  could  not  expect  to  have 
that  pleasure  at  so  unseasonable  an  hour. 

T.  J.  JACKSON. 

Sept.  10,  1862,  5.15A.M. 

The  note  bore  every  sign  of  having 
been  written  in  extreme  haste.  It  was 
under  this  very  door  that  General  Jack 
son  left  another  note  on  Saturday,  Sep 
tember  6th,  to  say  that  he  would  be  at 
church  the  following  day ;  and  this  note 
Dr.  Steiner  saw  an  hour  or  two  after  it 
was  written. 

Now,  Tyler's  statement  has  nothing  in 


48  BARBARA   FR1TCHIE. 

the  world  to  do  with  our  story.  This 
was  Wednesday,  and  it  was  on  Saturday 
that  the  whole  affair  took  place.  Miss 
Dix  stated  that  Barbara's  flag  waved 
from  the  attic  window  as  long  as  the 
Rebel  army  occupied  Frederick.  This 
would  not  have  been  possible  if  it  had 
been  the  large  flag,  of  which  people 
commonly  think ;  but  as  the  window  did 
not  front  the  town,  and  the  flag  was  so 
small,  it  might  easily  have  done  so.  Bar 
bara  had  no  reason  to  go  to  her  front  win 
dow  on  the  day  the  army  left.  Her  attic 
commanded  a  complete  view,  not  only  of 
the  advance,  but  of  the  army  that  fol 
lowed,  —  a  privilege  not  shared,  I  believe, 
by  any  other  house  within  the  town. 

On  Sunday,  Sept.  7th,  1862,  Stonewall 
Jackson  attended  service  at  the  Presby 
terian  church  in  Frederick,  where  Dr. 
Steiner  saw  him ;  "  and  I  am  sure,"  added 
the  Doctor,  in  a  letter  to  myself,  "  that  he 
worshipped  with  relish  !  " 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  49 

I  saw  every  one  in  Frederick  who 
could  be  supposed  to  know  anything  of 
the  incident.  Every  one  believed  that 
the  flag  had  been  fired  upon,  but  it 
is  certain  that  no  bullet  struck  the  staff. 
It  is  possible  that  one  may  have  lodged 
under  the  eaves  ;  but  although  door-sill 
and  window-sill  were  cut  into  blocks 
and  treasured  as  relics,  no  one  thought 
of  the  bullet  when  the  house  was  pulled 
down.  It  is  probable  that  Barbara's 
story  and  Mrs.  Quantrell's  were  con 
founded  by  rumor,  for  the  staff  of  Mrs. 
Quantrell's  flag  was  cut  away. 

Two  days  after,  Lee's  army  moved  to 
the  west.  On  Friday,  September  12th, 
Burnside's  army  entered  the  very  streets 
of  Frederick.  The  advance  under  Reno 
crossed  the  bridge  over  the  creek,  enter 
ing  between  Barbara's  house  and  one 
opposite,  where  an  old  German  clergy 
man,  the  Rev.  Joseph  Trapnell,  himself 


50  BARBARA   FRITCHIE. 

over  ninety  years  of  age,  was  waving 
his  flag. 

Barbara  stood  in  the  doorway  of  her 
house  with  Harriet  Yorner  and  Mrs. 
Handshew.  A  younger  member  of  the 
party,  catching  a  glimpse  of  Mr.  Trap- 
nell,  brought  Barbara's  flag  from  the 
house.  Somewhat  reluctantly,  Barbara 
accepted  and  waved  it.  It  was  much 
more  like  her  to  shake  her  flag  in  the 
face  of  the  advancing  foe  than  to  parade 
her  good-will  when  a  friendly  army 
entered. 

The  groups  in  the  two  houses  attracted 
the  attention  of  General  Eeno.  He  saw 
at  one  glance  the  advanced  age  and  the 
deep  emotion  of  the  two  who  held  the 
flags.  He  halted  between  them.  "  Behold 
the  spirit  of  seventy-six !  "  he  cried  out 
to  his  men;  and  they  answered  by  a 
mighty  shout,  which  echoed  along  the 
street. 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  51 

This  little  incident,  which  has  never 
been  questioned  in  Frederick  or  out  of 
it,  spread  the  fame  of  the  two  old  people 
throughout  the  town.  It  took  place  in 
full  day,  and  was  witnessed  by  both  par 
ties.  The  talk  about  it  led  the  few  per 
sons  who  knew  what  had  occurred  on  Sep 
tember  6th  to  speak  of  that  also.  The 
battle  of  "South  Mountain"  brought 
many  wounded  men  into  the  hospital, 
and  so  the  story  slowly  travelled.  What 
ever  friends  or  relatives  might  know, 
they  were  little  likely  to  boast  of  then, 
for  outrage  followed  quick  on  loyalty. 
The  close  of  September  and  the  weeks 
that  came  after  brought  more  than  one 
event  likely  to  shatter  aged  nerves. 
The  3d  of  December,  which  completed 
Barbara  Fritchie's  ninety-sixth  year, 
found  her  in  bed,  which  she  had  not 
quitted  for  a  month,  and  where  she  was 
nursed  by  Mrs.  Handshew  and  Harriet 
Yorner. 


52  BARBARA   FRITCHIE. 

"Behold  the  spirit  of  seventy-six!" 
exclaimed  General  Reno ;  but  he  little 
knew  how  truly  he  spoke  so  far  as  re 
garded  Barbara.  When  the  Revolution 
ary  War  opened,  she  was  old  enough  to 
enter  into  and  understand  it.  When  it 
ended,  she  was  a  woman  grown.  When 
Washington  visited  Frederick  in  1791, 
Barbara  sent  some  dainty  teapot  to  be 
used  in  his  behalf ;  and  when  the  town 
of  Frederick  held  funeral  services  in  his 
honor,  nearly  ten  years  after,  she  was 
one  of  the  pall-bearers,  so  early  in  her 
history  had  her  steadfast  patriotism  be 
come  conspicuous. 

All  her  life  long  she  talked  of  the  Bos 
ton  tea-party  and  the  success  of  the  col 
onists,  with  loving  pride,  and  the  events 
of  the  Civil  War  kept  the  subject  con 
stantly  in  her  mind.  The  glorious  mem 
ory  of  what  she  had  lived  through 
stimulated  her  faith  that  the  Union 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  53 

must  survive.  "We  have  seen  darker 
times/*  she  said  frequently  to  Henry 
Nixtorf;  and  it  is  he  who  asserts  that 
her  flag  floated  from  her  west  window 
until  she  died ;  nor  does  he  believe  that 
it  was  taken  in  between  the  6th  and 
the  10th  of  September.  We  have  pretty 
conclusive  evidence  that  it  was  still  float 
ing  when,  on  the  loth  of  September,  Mrs. 
Handshew  went  down  into  the  flower- 
garden  and  left  her  to  her  encounter 
with  the  Union  officer. 

An  account  of  this  incident  and  of 
what  occurred  on  the  previous  day,  dif 
fering  somewhat  from  that  given  to  me 
by  Mrs.  Handshew  fifteen  years  after,  I 
will  condense  from  a  newspaper  printed 
soon  after  the  war  closed. 

"  The  troops  were  passing  all  day," 
Mrs.  Handshew  said.  "  I  sent  my  daugh 
ter  across  the  bridge  to  bring  Aunt  Bar 
bara  away ;  but  she  found  her  nodding  and 


54  BARBARA   FR1TCHIE. 

laughing  with  the  soldiers,  and  she 
asked  Julia  to  hand  her  a  flag  which  lay 
between  the  leaves  of  her  Bible."  It  was 
a  little  flag  of  twisted  silk  not  two  feet 
long.  It  had  no  staff,  —  which  may  have 
helped  out  the  story  of  September  6th, 
and  Barbara  waved  it  like  a  handkerchief. 
"  How  old  is  grandmother  ?"  said  Reno ; 
and  when  some  one  answered  ninety-six, 
he  reined  in  his  horse,  and  three  loud 
cheers  startled  the  air.  He  dismounted 
and  entered  the  house,  and  when  he  took 
his  seat,  Barbara  served  him  with  wine 
made  by  her  own  hands.  The  next  day  — 
the  very  day  on  which  Reno  met  his  fate 
at  South  Mountain  —  the  Handshews, 
who  seemed  to  have  lived  just  across  the 
bridge,  spent  the  day  with  Barbara. 
They  went  down  into  the  garden  to  at 
tend  to  some  of  her  flowers,  and  when 
she  locked  the  door  after  them,  they 
charged  her  not  to  open  it  until  they 
returned. 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  55 

"  When  we  went  back,"  said  Mrs.  Hand- 
shew,  "  she  met  us  quivering  with  excite 
ment.  '  I  could  n't  help  it,  he  would 
have  it ! '  she  exclaimed.  '  I  did  n't  want 
to  give  it,  but  he  was  a  gentleman.  He 
had  straps  on  his  shoulders,  and  a  gold 
watch  and  chain/  At  last  she  was  per 
suaded  to  own  that  she  had  answered  a 
knock.  Then  an  officer  entered,  and 
pleaded  so  earnestly  for  a  little  cotton 
flag  that  lay  beside  her  that  she  could  not 
refuse  it. 

" '  He  would  have  it,'  she  kept  repeat 
ing,  'but  it  wasn't  the  one  — " 

What  did  Barbara  mean  when  she  said 
"  that  it  was  n't  the  one  "  ?  Probably 
that  the  officer  had  asked  for  the  flag 
that  she  had  waved  on  September  6th, 
which  was  still  fast  in  the  west  window 
upstairs.  This  anecdote  shows  us  that 
Barbara  had  three  flags,  —  one  which  told 
the  story  of  her  loyalty  to  every  man  or 


56  BARBARA   FRITCHIE. 

child  that  crossed  the  bridge,  and  which 
was  finally  bought  by  Valerius  Ebert ; 
one  laid  securely  between  the  pages  of 
her  Bible,  and  held  as  sacred  as  the  book 
itself ;  and  a  common  cotton  toy  which 
was  always  in  sight.  It  is  probable  that 
the  officer  was  a  convalescent  at  the  hos 
pital,  about  to  rejoin  his  troops.  If  he 
be  still  living,  these  pages  may  fall  into 
his  hands.  Is  it  too  much  to  ask  that 
he  should  speak  ? 

Just  opposite  Barbara's  house,  and  near 
the  creek,  a  clear  spring  bubbled  up ;  and 
as  she  went  to  and  from  Mrs.  Handshew's, 
the  soldiers  crowded  round  her.  If  they 
were  her  "  own  men,"  her  glasses  and 
dippers  were  always  ready ;  but  if  they 
were  the  "  gray  coats,"  her  gold-headed 
cane  stirred  among  them  as  if  they  had 
been  dead  leaves,  and  they  scattered  in 
all  directions,  driven  by  the  curses  that 
she  did  not  spare. 


BARBARA   FRITCH1E.  57 

On  the  18th  of  December,  1862,  three 
months  and  a  half  after  her  trembling 
hand  had  shut  the  attic  window  down 
upon  her  little  flag,  she  peacefully 
breathed  her  last.  In  the  graveyard  of 
the  Evangelical  Reformed  Church  the 
curious  traveller  will  find  two  marble 
headstones,  surrounded  by  a  wall  of  ever 
greens,  bearing  the  inscriptions  :  — 

JOHN   C.   FRITCHIE, 
Died  Nov.  10,  1849,  aged  69  years. 

BARBARA  FRITCHIE, 
Died  Dec.  18,  1862,  aged  96  years. 

When  the  funeral  was  over,  and  the 
Rebels  were  rid  of  "Brave  Barbara,"  the 
"mayor  and  corporation"  had  a  double 
reason  for  trying  to  get  possession  of  the 
little  house  in  which  she  had  lived.  In 
the  first  place,  and  in  spite  of  what  has 
been  said  to  the  contrary,  so  many  in- 


58  BARBARA   FRITCHIE. 

quiries  had  already  been  made  concern 
ing  Barbara  that  they  were  glad  to  cut 
them  short  by  saying,  with  apparent 
truth,  "  There  is  not  a  house  in  town 
which  ever  belonged  to  any  such 
person." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  little  creek 
was  a  dangerous  foe  to  the  town,  and 
had  more  than  once  swamped  the  cellars 
and  lower  storeys  of  the  houses  in  its 
neighborhood  in  a  way  that  not  only 
threatened  disease  and  death,  but  that 
induced  worthy  citizens  to  consider  their 
taxes  and  the  amount  to  be  paid  yearly 
to  retrieve  personal  losses.  So  the  cor 
poration  bought  Barbara's  house,  and 
pulled  it  down. 

Fortunately  for  us,  Barbara  had  one 
relative  who  was  not  ashamed  of  her, 
and  who  knew  very  well  that  her  little 
flag  had  been  waved  in  the  sight  of  the 
whole  world,  although  she  might  not 
have  suspected  it. 


BARBARA   FR1TCHIE.  59 

This  was  a  certain  John  D.  Byerly, 
photographer,  who  called  his  workshop 
at  29  North  Market  Street,  Frederick,  a 
studio,  and  refused  to  send  anything  out 
of  it  that  did  not  please  him.  If  nobody 
knew  anything  of  Miss  Dix's  story  at 
the  time  of  Barbara's  death,  how  did  it 
happen  that  this  man  made  haste  to 
copy  the  old  daguerreotype? 

I  have  said  that  Barbara  left  all  her 
personal  property  to  Mrs.  Handshew.  If 
she  gave  her  the  flag  with  all  the  rest, 
there  was  one  man  in  town  shrewd 
enough  to  offer  its  price. 

Mr.  Byerly  knew  where  to  find  it,  and 
in  spite  of  the  Southern  sympathies  of 
its  owner,  he  borrowed  it,  set  it  in  the 
west  window  where  it  had  waved  from 
the  time  that  Barbara  bought  it  until 
shortly  before  her  death,  and  photo 
graphed  the  little  house  before  the  cor 
poration  pulled  it  down. 


60  BARBARA   FR1TCHIE. 

When  it  was  levelled,  about  two  thirds 
of  the  lot  was  dug  away,  so  that  the 
wicked  creek  might  find  room  enough 
for  its  sudden  vagaries ;  and  on  the  re 
maining  third  a  small  tinshop  was  erected, 
which  was  still  standing  in  1878.  Har 
riet  Yorner  survived  her  old  friend.  She 
died  at  the  age  of  seventy-seven,  on  the 
1st  of  May,  1874.  Her  story,  as  con 
nected  with  that  of  Barbara,  rests  on  the 
word  of  Mrs.  Handshew,  who  was  living 
when  I  went  to  Frederick.  Harriet  was 
buried  in  the  quiet  yard  at  Frederick, 
where  her  body  was  laid  beside  those  of 
Barbara  and  Caspar. 

If  my  story  be  true,  what  were  the 
motives  to  the  various  contradictions 
and  denials  connected  with  it  ? 

How  peremptory  these  were,  the  fol 
lowing  anecdote  will  show  :  — 

In  the  month  of  May,  1876,  I  went 
into  a  druggist's  shop  in  Frederick  to 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  61 

get  a  little  quinine.  It  was  Sunday 
morning,  and-  while  I  waited,  a  stranger 
sauntered  in,  wearing  the  gray  morning 
coat  of  the  conventional  Englishman. 

"  Will  you  tell  me,  sir/'  he  asked  of 
the  druggist,  "whether  a  woman  named 
Barbara  Fritchie  ever  lived  in  this 
town  ?  " 

"  Certainly,"  was  the  answer. 

"  Ah  !  "  responded  the  Englishman, 
stroking  his  whiskers  with  an  air  of 
relief,  "  there  is  evidently  a  mystery. 
I  asked  at  the  hotel :  they  said  there 
was  no  such  person  here.  I  replied  that 
she  might  be  dead,  but  there  must  be 
a  grave,  relatives,  or  at  least  the  house 
in  which  she  had  lived  ;  but  the  landlord 
angrily  denied  that  there  was  any  such 
thing.  I  determined  not  to  leave  town 
without  inquiring  on  the  street,  and  as 
it  is  Sunday  and  the  shops  are  shut,  I 
must  trouble  you/'  The  druggist  ex- 


62  BARBARA  FRITCHIE. 

plained.  The  traveller  could  not  wait 
for  Dr.  Steiner,  who  had  not  risen,  and 
it  ended  in  my  leading  him  to  the  bridge 
and  into  the  solemn  shadow  of  the  ever 
greens  at  the  cemetery  while  the  drug 
gist  put  up  my  powders. 

The  owner  of  the  hotel  turned  out  upon 
inquiry  to  have  been  a  personal  enemy 
of  Barbara.  I  think  it  is  not  difficult  for 
the  reader  to  see  how  little  likely  Bar 
bara  was  to  boast  of  her  defiance  to  her 
friends,  or  tell  of  it  in  any  way  to  her 
husband's  nephews.  As  far  as  she  was 
concerned,  she  contented  herself,  accord 
ing  to  Mrs.  Handshew,  by  scolding  Har 
riet  Yorner  for  her  cowardice.  The  denial 
was  given  partly  in  ignorance,  and  partly 
in  unsympathizing  disgust,  while  the 
Anti-Union  feeling  was  still  strong. 
Once  given,  it  must  be  adhered  to. 

If  it  be  asked  why  the  leading  Union 
ists  of  the  town  said  nothing  about  it, 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  63 

I  would  reply  that  the  incident  oc 
curred  at  a  time  and  place  when  no  one 
but  Jackson  and  his  men  could  be  ex 
pected  to  know  of  it.  To  Jackson  it  was 
but  one  of  a  hundred  similar  incidents 
and  small  disturbances  connected  with  his 
march,  the  only  peculiarity  being  the  ex 
treme  age  of  the  woman.  Six  days  after 
Barbara's  achievement,  the  wife  of  one 
of  the  prominent  Union  men  in  Frederick 
unfurled  her  national  flag  —  a  much 
bigger  one  than  Barbara's  —  just  as 
Stewart's  men  dashed  by  her  house. 

"  It  was  pleasant  and  fitting,"  Dr. 
Steiner  says  in  his  diary,  "  that  a  member 
of  the  Washington  family  should  so  have 
welcomed  the  incoming  Union  troops." 

But  there  was  a  still  stronger  reason. 
When  I  asked  the  niece  of  Admiral 
Goldsborough,  who  divided  her  oaken 
relic  with  me,  why  she,  a  Union  woman, 
had  never  heard  this  story,  she  answered 


64  BARBARA  FRITCHIE. 

at  once,  "  Because  we  never  had  anything 
to  do  with  the  Hessians."  The  prejudice 
which  separated  the  old  Union  residents 
from  the  Germans  seemed  to  have  been 
stronger  than  that  which  divided  them 
from  their  Rebel  neighbors. 

I  once  heard  a  Union  officer  assert  in 
a  railway  car  that  he  had  seen  a  shot 
fired  at  Barbara's  flag.  It  was  in  Novem 
ber,  1868,  between  Baltimore  and  Wash 
ington  ;  and  I  was  on  my  way  to  the 
colored  schools  at  Beaufort.  His  state 
ment  was  not  made  in  controversy.  It 
was  perfectly  simple.  He  described  the 
position  of  the  house  accurately,  railing 
somewhat  profanely  because  the  corpo 
ration  had  so  unnecessarily  destroyed  the 
house,  instead  of  widening  the  creek  on 
the  side  of  the  Bentztown  road.  I  listened 
intently  and  looked  at  him  with  great 
interest,  but  did  not  ask  his  name,  be 
cause  at  that  time  I  did  not  know  that 


BARBARA  FRITCHIE.  65 

it  was  possible  to  doubt  the  story.  Both 
Harriet  Yorner  and  Barbara  died  before 
it  was  questioned. 

Who  are  the  persons  who  have  denied 
this  story  over  their  own  name  ? 

1.  Mayor  Engelbrecht,  an  honest  man 
and    a  Unionist,  but  one  who  made  a 
mistake  in  the  time  alluded  to.     It  was 
on  Wednesday,  September  10th,  not  Sat 
urday,  the    6th,  that  he   stood  all  day 
at  his  upper  window  watching  the  main 
body  of  Lee's  army  as  it  passed.     But  if 
it  had  been  on  the  6th,  he  could  not  have 
seen  Barbara,  for  her  own  house  would 
have    been    interposed    between  herself 
and  him. 

2.  A  certain    Samuel  Tyler,  lawyer, 
and  author  of  the  Life  of  Judge  Taney, 
who  died  in  1878.     He  relied  first  upon 
the  mayor's  statement,  and  next  upon 
the  fact  that  Jackson's  forces  "  did  not 
enter  Frederick."     He  started  with  the 

5 


66  BARBARA   FRITCHIE. 

mistaken  idea  that  Barbara  was  said  to 
wave  her  flag  from  the  front  window, 
and  so  had  no  motive  for  telling  us  how 
close  the  Bentztown  road  came  to  Bar 
bara's  side  window,  or  for  recalling  the 
fact  that  Stonewall  Jackson  attended 
church  in  the  town  the  next  day. 

3.  A   Bangor  paper,  dated,  I  think, 
Jan.  26,   1876,  denies  the  story  on  the 
authority  of  "  one  of  the  family."     Upon 
inquiry  this  turned  out  to  be  the  "arrant 
Eebel  "  with  whom  Barbara  would  have 
nothing  to  do. 

4.  A  more  elaborate  denial  was  made 
by  a  writer  calling  himself  "  Karl  Ed 
mund,"  in  the  Philadelphia  "  Press  "  on 
the  18th  of  May,  1876. 

As  his  letter  was  written  after  a  visit 
to  the  spot,  it  is  as  well  to  advert  to  his 
objection  that  Dr.  Steiner  did  not  pub 
licly  stand  by  the  story.  That  a  Ger 
man  Unionist  living  in  Frederick  City 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  67 

should  feel  it  unnecessary  to  take  sides 
on  this  matter  in  the  midst  of  far  more 
important  duties,  will  surprise  no  one 
who  has  been  there  long  enough  to  rec 
ognize  the  vestiges  of  the  old  feud,  or  to 
sympathize  with  the  social  predicament 
in  which  the  close  of  the  war  found 
some  of  its  best  citizens. 

The  story  was  certainly  told  while 
Barbara  lived.  It  was  openly  gossiped 
over  in  the  hospitals  as  soon  as  death 
released  her  from  annoyance.  It  became 
public  in  the  following  year. 

Karl  Edmund  suggests  that  a  Mrs. 
Quantrell,  "  now  in  Washington/'  might 
have  been  the  true  heroine.  Such  a  per 
son  may  have  waved  a  flag  on  the  10th 
of  September,  when  Lee  went  out  of 
town,  or  when  Burnside  entered ;  but 
no  house  in  Frederick  but  Barbara 
Fritchie's  had  a  window  that  confronted 
Jackson's  advance  on  the  6th. 


68  BARBARA   FRITCHIE. 

5.  The  most  important  denial  is  one 
said  to  have  been  given  recently  by  a 
member  of  Jackson's  staff  residing  at 
Hagerstown.  If  the  reader  will  turn  to 
the  account  of  Jackson's  absence  of  a 
few  moments  only  from  the  head  of  the 
advance,  he  will  see  that  it  need  not 
have  been  observed  by  any  of  his  staff. 

The  officer  is  of  course  correct  when 
he  denies  that  Jackson  gave  the  order 
to  "  Fire !  "  As  no  one  now  knows  at 
what  part  of  the  column  the  disturbance 
occurred,  it  may  easily  have  escaped  the 
notice  of  any  one  man. 

The  whole  story  turns  on  local  pecu 
liarities  that  have  been  wholly  ignored 
in  the  telling. 

No  one  asks  how  it  was  that  a  story 
to  which  there  were  so  few  witnesses 
became  instantly  linked  to  Barbara's 
name.  Jackson's  men  remained  in  the 
neighborhood  four  days.  The  few  sol- 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  69 

diers  or  hospital  patients  who  witnessed 
the  scene  had  many  opportunities  to  ask 
who  lived  in  the  little  house  overhang 
ing  the  creek.  Everybody  could  tell, 
and  the  story  was  never  doubted  till  it 
became  hopelessly  entangled  in  double 
dates  and  mixed  motives. 

The  poem  is  historically  true  to  the 
spirit  of  the  loyal  woman  who  gave 
it  being.  In  several  minor  respects  it 
errs,  for  the  history  of  the  6th  of 
September  had  not  then  been  written. 

"  All  that  day  through  Frederick  street 
sounded  "  no  "  tread  of  marching  feet/* 
and  the  marching  in  the  county  ceased 
at  an  early  hour.  It  was  not  noon, 
but  daybreak,  when  Barbara  mounted 
to  her  attic.  Stonewall  Jackson  never 
ordered  his  men  to  fire  on  the  flag 
held  in  an  aged  woman's  hand.  He 
was  not  at  the  "head"  of  his  advanc 
ing  column.  The  moment  he  reached 


70  BARBARA   FRITCH1E. 

it,    he   did   indeed    give    the    order    to 
"  March  on  !  " 

So  far  I  had  told  the  story  in  my 
article  of  April,  1878.  When  I  wrote 
to  Whittier,  asking  for  a  copy  of  Miss 
Dix's  letter,  he  was  not  able  to  find 
it ;  and  although  Mrs.  Southworth's 
seems  to  have  been  printed  soon  after 
the  ballad  was  written,  I  have  seen  only 
that  portion  of  it  which  is  quoted  by 
Karl  Edmund  in  May,  1876. 

It  was  Mrs.  Southworth  who  first  told 
the  story  to  Whittier,  and  she  did  not 
attribute  to  Stonewall  Jackson  the  orders 
to  "  halt  and  fire  "  which  make  part  of 
Whit  tier's  poem.  If  she  thought,  not 
living  in  Frederick,  that  such  an  order 
had  been  given,  it  was  natural  that  she 
should  have  supposed  a  "  volley "  fol 
lowed,  and  that  Jackson  gave  the  order ; 
although  we  have  every  reason  to  sup- 


BARBARA    FRITCHIE.  71 

pose  that  only  one  or  two  irregular  shots 
were  fired.  Miss  Dix's  whole  soul  ex 
ulted  in  the  story,  for  she  was  quite 
capable  herself  of  the  action  it  recorded, 
and  was  glad  to  confirm  it.  Whittier, 
knowing  nothing  of  the  details,  told  the 
story  in  his  most  heroic  mood  ;  and  the 
song  will  live  longer  than  the  facts. 

Up  to  the  time  that  I  published  the 
result  of  my  investigations,  Valerius 
Ebert,  who  was  that  nephew  of  Caspar 
Fritchie  from  whom  Barbara  refused  to 
receive  her  dividends,  had  made  no  public 
statement  concerning  Barbara.  In  April 
and  May,  1878,  I  received  several  letters 
from  this  nephew,  chiefly  filled  with 
slanderous  charges  against  Dr.  Steiner. 
When  I  humorously  reported  these  to  the 
Doctor,  he  replied,  after  characterizing 
the  man  somewhat  broadly,  as  follows  : 

"  Once,  during  the  occupancy  of  our 
place  by  some  United  States  cavalry 


72  BARBARA   FRIT C HIE. 

under  General  Stahel,  at  the  request  of 
his  distressed  wife  I  rescued  Ebert  from 
the  rough  hands  of  some  of  the  troops. 
Of  course  he  is  grateful !  I  am  sorry 
he  has  a  poor  opinion  of  me  !  " 

Some  time  after,  a  copy  of  "  The  Jour 
nal/'  a  Sunday  newspaper  printed  at 
Evansville,  Ind.,  on  April  14th,  1878,  was 
sent  me.  In  this,  a  letter  from  Valerius 
Ebert  asserts  that  at  the  time  Lee's 
advance  entered  Frederick,  Barbara  was 
lying  in  her  bed,  a  helpless  invalid 
within  a  few  weeks  of  her  death. 

Now,  we  know  this  is  not  true,  for 
six  days  after  the  advance,  Reno's  men 
cheered  her  upon  her  front  porch,  where 
she  again  waved  a  flag,  and  "  was  seen 
of  many." 

His  next  assertion  is  that  Ebert  never 
had  a  sharp  word  with  his  aunt;  and 
against  that  we  must  set  the  statement  of 
Dr.  Lewis  H.  Steiner  and  his  father,  to 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  73 

whom  Barbara  went  for  relief,  —  well- 
known  persons  both  of  them.  Then 
comes  the  amazing  assertion  that,  as  a 
politician,  Aunt  Barbara  "  was  never  de 
monstrative."  Every  German  resident  in 
Frederick  knew  better  than  that.  Noth 
ing  would  be  gained  by  copying  Ebert's 
letters  to  me,  and  I  pass  on  to  one  of 
greater  interest. 

The  April  number  of  "  Sunday  After 
noon,"  in  which  I  published  my  first 
account  of  Barbara  Fritchie,  was  issued 
about  the  10th  of  March,  1878,  according 
to  the  very  reprehensible  modern  prac 
tice  of  anticipating  the  proper  date, — 
a  practice  which  will  make  newspapers 
and  magazines  historically  worthless  to 
the  succeeding  generations.  Soon  after 
that  date,  I  received  the  following  letter 
from  one  of  Burnside's  men.  It  answers 
very  fully  the  statement  that  the  main 
fact  of  Barbara's  story  was  never  heard 
of  in  Frederick  during  her  life :  — 


74  BARBARA   FRITCHIE. 


No.  712  RHODE  ISLAND  AVENUE, 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  March  16,  1878. 

MADAM,  —  I  have  read  this  day  with  great 
interest  your  capital  article  in  the  April 
number  of  the  "  Sunday  Afternoon,"  entitled 
"The  Truth  about  Barbara  Fritchie."  I 
also  remember  reading  your  article  on  the 
same  subject  published  in  the  "  Independent " 
sometime  in  1875.  And  now,  let  me  tell 
you  what  I  know  about  this  famous  act  of 
"  Dame  Barbara's  :  "  — 

On  the  18th  of  September,  1862,  the  day 
after  the  battle  of  Antietam  (and  twelve 
days  after  Barbara  is  said  to  have  confronted 
the  advance),  I  happened  to  be  in  Frederick 
City  with  several  of  my  comrades  belonging 
to  Burnside's  Ninth  Army  Corps.  We  were 
in  search  of  a  glass  of  beer,  and  were  shown 
a  little  house  where  it  was  said  that  we 
could  procure  it.  We  entered,  and  found  a 
very  pretty  Irish  girl  in  charge ;  and  after 
some  "  persuasive  logic "  she  introduced  us 
to  a  barrel  of  lager,  and  we  had  a  good  time. 
I  remember  very  well  her  telling  me  the 
story  about  Barbara  Fritchie  and  the  flag. 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  75 

We  were  very  much  interested,  and  under 
the  inspiring  influences  of  the  moment,  the 
writer  paid  his  compliments  to  the  great 
"  Stonewall,"  after  which  the  pretty  maiden 
shouted,  "  Bully  for  Jackson  !  "  I  at  once 
retorted,  "  If  you  say  that  again,  I  '11  kiss 
you  !  "  But  I  did  n't,  for  she  hastily  with 
drew,  leaving  "the  boys"  in  command. 

On  our  way  to  the  front  we  called  to  see, 
and  did  see,  Barbara  Fritchie's  house;  and 
I  am  willing  to  make  affidavit  to  the  same. 
But  you  have  told  "the  truth,  the  whole 
truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth." 
Very  respectfully, 

JOHN  WILLIAMS. 

CAROLINE  H.  DALL,  care  of  "  Sunday  Afternoon," 
Springfield,  Mass. 

Now,  it  is  obvious  that  the  value  of 
a  letter  like  the  above  depends  upon 
the  character  of  the  man  who  wrote  it. 
At  the  time  I  received  it,  I  had  no 
thought  of  publishing  it.  Since  the 
issue  of  the  "Life  of  Stonewall  Jackson," 
I  have  seen  the  necessity  of  reasserting 


76  BARBARA   FRITCH1E. 

all  that  part  of  the  story  that  relates 
to  Barbara's  heroism,  of  explaining  how 
the  poet,  naturally  ignorant  of  the  his 
tory  of  the  day  and  the  character  of 
Stonewall  Jackson,  most  innocently  at 
tributed  to  him  an  order,  which,  under 
no  circumstances,  could  he  have  been 
induced  to  give. 

I  think  it  probable  that,  however  well 
the  story  was  known,  Jackson  was  never 
credited  with  the  order  to  "  Fire ! " 
until  after  the  ballad  was  published,  in 
October,  1863.  I  therefore  determined  to 
find  John  Williams,  who  had  heard  the 
story  twelve  days  after  the  incident  oc 
curred,  and  ascertain  exactly  what  was 
said  about  the  general  when  the  little 
Irish  girl  told  the  story.  But,  alas  !  I 
found  only  his  grave. 

The  War  Department  could  not  help 
me,  because  I  could  not  properly  define 
his  position.  It  then  occurred  to  me 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  77 

that  fourteen  years  was  not  a  very  long 
time,  and  that  I  might  trace  him  from 
the  house  where  he  had  lived  in  1878. 
His  family  were  remembered,  and  it  was 
easy  for  me  to  find  his  widow,  who  has 
recently  married  a  second  time.  The 
little  sketch  of  his  life  which  follows,  I 
took  down  from  her  lips  and  from  papers 
in  her  possession  :  — 

John  Williams  was  born  in  Cornwall, 
at  St.  Just,  a  parish  in  the  western  part 
of  Penzance.  He  reached  this  country 
in  time  to  receive  a  certificate  of  citi 
zenship  in  Jackson,  Michigan,  in  1860, 
and  on  the  breaking  out  of  the  war, 
enlisted  in  the  Eighth  Michigan  In 
fantry  and  served  as  quartermaster. 
In  1865,  after  the  war  ended,  he  seems 
to  have  entered  the  service  of  the  Freed- 
man's  Bureau.  He  went  to  the  Caro- 
linas,  and  finally  to  Jackson,  Miss., 
carrying  teachers  to  the  colored  schools. 


78  BARBARA   FRITCHIE. 

He  finally  settled  in  Mississippi,  and  be 
came  "reader  and  librarian"  to  the  Mis 
sissippi  Senate,  —  a  title  which  his  widow 
insisted  upon,  although  it  sounded  oddly 
to  my  New  England  ears.  The  office 
corresponds  to  our  "  clerk  of  the  sen 
ate."  He  came  to  Washington  in  1877, 
and  obtained  a  clerkship  in  the  Treas 
ury,  where  he  remained  until  his  death 
in  1886,  at  the  early  age  of  fifty-seven. 

Some  resolutions,  passed  by  his  com 
panions  in  the  Sixth  Auditor's  Office, 
were  framed  and  hanging  on  the  wall. 
They  spoke  of  his  careful  and  accurate 
habits.  His  death  was  instantaneous. 
He  fell  as  he  left  his  room  in  the  morn 
ing;  and  the  resolutions  stated  that 
no  unfinished  work  was  left  on  his  desk 
the  night  before,  and  that  his  papers 
were  as  carefully  filed  as  if  he  had 
known  what  was  to  happen.  They 
spoke  also  of  his  generous  heart,  his 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  79 

genial  smile  and  ready  wit.  I  found 
his  wife  very  proud  of  his  college  educa 
tion,  his  wide  reading,  and  personal  re 
finement.  The  Senate  of  Mississippi 
passed  resolutions  at  the  time  of  his 
death,  which  were  sent  to  his  brother, 
a  prosperous  citizen  of  Penzance.  I 
have  thought  it  worth  while  to  recapi 
tulate  his  story,  because  it  gives  the 
impression  of  a  man  who  could  be 
trusted. 

If  I  could  find  the  Union  officer  who 
said  he  saw  the  shot  fired  at  the  flag,  I 
think  the  evidence  of  Barbara's  heroism 
would  now  satisfy  a  court  of  justice. 

CAKOLINE  HEALEY  DALL. 

1526  Eighteenth  Street,  N.  W., 

WASHINGTON,  March,  1892. 


80  BAEBARA  FRITCHIE. 


PART  II. 

BARBARA'S  HOME  AND  ITS  NEIGHBORHOOD 
IN   1876. 

I  HAVE  said  that  it  was  the  niece  of 
Admiral  Goldsborough  who  divided  for 
me  the  bit  of  oak  that  had  been  cut 
for  her  from  Barbara  Fritchie's  thresh 
old  ;  and  when  I  name  her,  many  a 
United  States  soldier  will  rouse  himself 
to  read,  and  many  a  Northern  mother 
of  dead  sons  will  breathe  a  blessing 
choked  by  sobs.  It  was  she  who  talked 
to  me  of  Frederick.  Quaint,  indeed,  I 
found  the  old  town.  It  really  seemed 
to  consist  of  but  two  streets  hardly  a 
mile  long,  crossing  each  other  at  right 
angles,  and  so  making  a  market  square 
in  the  centre,  and  intersected  in  odd 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  81 

ways  by  narrow  lanes,  through  one  of 
which  Stonewall  Jackson  was  seen  to 
spur  his  horse  on  the  morning  of  Sept. 
6th,  1862. 

A  few  miles  away  flows  the  Potomac, 
hidden  by  a  low  mountain  wall  between 
which  and  the  town  were  the  broad 
pastures  and  orchards  "fruited  deep." 
Fair,  indeed,  it  was  "as  a  garden  of 
the  Lord."  The  conical  summit  of  the 
"  Sugar  Loaf "  cuts  the  clear  blue  sky, 
and  showed  no  remnant  of  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  that  once  floated  aloft.  The 
Presbyterians  still  called  their  congre 
gation  together  by  a  sharp-voiced  tri 
angle,  and  every  quarter  of  an  hour  the 
old  town  clock  rang  out  the  time,  telling 
by  repeated  strokes  how  many  quarters 
had  glided  away. 

On  the  outskirts  you  can  still  trace 
the  barracks  built  for  Braddock's  men, 
and  used  as  a  prison  during  the  Revolu- 

6 


82  BARBARA   FRITCHIE. 

tionary  War.  As  I  dwelt  on  these 
things,  Miss  Goldsborough  said, — 

"  But  you  ought  to  go  to  the  Novitiate. 
Father  McElroy  is  the  oldest  Jesuit  in 
the  world." 

So  it  happened  that  the  next  day  I 
went  over  to  the  Novitiate.  When  I  was 
shown  into  the  dusky  ante-chamber  to 
await  the  coming  of  the  priest,  I  was 
stirred  to  the  very  depths ;  for  out  of 
its  dim  shadows  I  seemed  to  see  ap 
proaching  the  form  of  a  long  lost  friend. 
I  lost  him  out  of  the  dancing-school 
and  the  old  dining-room  in  Bowdoin 
Square,  where  we  had  studied  our  Greek 
verbs  together. 

Joseph  Coolidge  Shaw  wrent  to  Europe 
from  Harvard  College.  When  he  be 
came  a  Jesuit  priest  at  Rome,  he  sent 
home  a  portrait  of  himself  in  a  priest's 
robes,  and  after  his  death  his  family 
sent  it  to  the  institution  which  had 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  83 

sheltered  his  last  hours.  His  life  had 
been  one  of  fearless  truth,  mingled  with 
the  sweetest  devotion  and  self-denial. 
If  I  had  ever  known  that  he  died  here, 
I  had  lost  sight  of  the  fact.  The 
darkness  of  the  alcove  in  which  the  pic 
ture  hung,  hid  the  frame  and  the  back 
ground.  I  seemed,  as  I  entered,  to 
encounter  the  living  form  that  I  had 
loved. 

Father  McElroy  had  long  been  blind ; 
but  even  to  his  consciousness  my  per 
turbed  feeling  was  soon  revealedo  He 
asked  for  an  explanation,  and  when  I 
gave  it,  sent  for  the  nurse  who  had 
tended  my  friend  in  his  last  illness, 
who  went  with  me  to  the  grave  which 
I  had  never  expected  to  see,  and  told 
me  many  a  lovely  anecdote  of  the  steps 
which  led  to  it.  Father  McElroy  could 
not  talk  long  enough  of  one  who  had 
been  a  favorite  pupil,  and  while  we 
pondered,  the  hours  sped. 


84  BARBARA  FRITCHIE. 

The  old  Father  had  been  born  in  1781. 
He  had  just  celebrated  his  ninety-fifth 
birthday.  For  three  years  he  had  been 
totally  blind  ;  but  with  what  a  cheerful 
voice  he  answered  my  inquiries  !  "  '  The 
Lord  gave,  and  the  Lord  hath  taken 
away.'  So  much  may  I  say  with  holy 
Job ! "  and  then  he  went  on  to  tell 
me  of  the  beautiful  October  days  which 
he  had  seen  in  Frederick,  with  gay  sun 
shine  glinting  through  the  bright-col 
ored  leaves. 

He  had  been  a  dear  friend  of  Cheve- 
rus,  and  sat  at  his  side  at  that  his 
toric  Boston  dinner  when  the  bishop, 
finding  himself  opposite  to  William  El- 
lery  Channing,  bowed  to  him  and  said  : 

"  You  see,  they  have  set  orthodox  and 
heterodox  over  against  each  other!" 

Father  McElroy  gave  Father  Byrne 
a  key  that  he  might  take  me  into  the 
church  opposite  the  Novitiate.  "  When 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  85 

I  came  here  in  1803,"  he  went  on  to 
say,  "we  had  but  one  bishop  in  the 
United  States.  This  church,  which  I 
built,  was  only  the  second  in  the  country, 
and  for  a  long  time  the  handsomest. 
In  1823  all  the  bishops  came  to  conse 
crate  it.  There  were  only  eight.  Now 
we  have  more  than  sixty,  and  the  Catho 
lics  constitute  one  seventh  of  the  popu 
lation  of  the  United  States.  Then  there 
were  three  millions  of  people  in  the 
country ;  now  there  are  forty.  Never  in 
the  world  has  the  Church  seen  such  an 
increase  as  this  !  " 

The  church  which  Father  McElroy 
built  is  indeed  a  fine  one.  It  was  he 
who  secured  its  precious  pictures.  The 
altar  is  of  white  marble,  and  a  magnifi 
cent  painting  of  the  Crucifixion  hangs 
above  it. 

Father  McElroy  was  three  years  a 
chaplain  in  the  Mexican  War,  attached 


86  BARBARA    FRITCHIE. 

to  Taylor's  command.  At  its  close  he 
was  sent  to  Boston,  where  he  built  the 
Jesuit  College  and  the  Church  of  the 
Immaculate  Conception.  It  was  not  till 
he  was  nearly  blind  that  he  was  allowed 
to  come  back  to  the  city  of  his  love.  He 
died  in  the  summer  of  1877,  at  the  age 
of  ninety-seven. 

It  was  a  sunny  Sabbath  afternoon 
when  —  a  few  days  later  —  I  drove  out 
over  South  Mountain.  Braddock's  road 
crossed  mine  almost  at  a  right  angle. 
A  spring  is  still  shown  where  his  men 
stopped  to  drink.  The  hillsides  are  cov 
ered  with  chestnuts  hung  with  vines. 
From  the  latter  the  Germans  make  a 
very  fair  claret.  From  the  cemetery 
where  Francis  Key's  body  was  laid,  one 
may  look  far  down  the  road  which  leads 
to  Washington.  It  is  a  broad  highway, 
traversing  the  distance  with  a  mighty 
sweep.  As  I  looked,  I  felt  as  if  the 


BARBARA  FRITCHIE.  87 

poet's  dry  bones  must  have  put  on  their 
flesh  when  the  Rebel  army  marched  into 
Frederick  ! 

Old  De  Vol,  who  had  charge  of  the 
cemetery,  had  been  on  the  spot  all 
through  the  war.  He  saw  Burnside  en 
ter,  —  the  sun  gleaming  on  his  bayonets, 
cavalry  skirmishing  along  the  road,  and 
the  artillery  throwing  shells  from  the 
rear  over  both  armies.  I  could  see  it 
all  as  I  listened  and  looked  down  the 
turnpike,  threading  the  beautiful  hills 
on  the  way  to  Georgetown  !  When  you 
are  on  the  spot,  Harper's  Ferry  also 
seems  to  be  only  a  suburb  of  Frederick. 
Certainly,  John  Brown  and  dear  old 
Barbara  have  long  since  shaken  hands  ! 

MARCH  14,  1892. 


BARBARA   FR1TCHIE. 


PAKT   III. 

THE    BALLAD. 

(The  words  in  italics  are  intended  to  indicate  assertions 
that  are  mistaken.) 

UP  from  the  meadows  rich  with  corn, 
Clear  in  the  cool  September  morn, 

The  clustered  spires  of  Frederick  stand 
Green-walled  by  the  hills  of  Maryland. 

Round  about  them  orchards  sweep, 
Apple  and  peach  tree  fruited  deep, 

Fair  as  a  garden  of  the  Lord 

To  the  eyes  of  the  famished  rebel  horde; 

On  that  pleasant  morn  of  the  early  fall 
When  Lee  marched  over  the  mountain  wall,  — 

Over  the  mountains,  winding  down, 
Horse  and  foot  into  Frederick  town. 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  89 

Forty  flags  with  their  silver  stars, 
Forty  flags  with  their  crimson  bars, 

Flapped  in  the  morning  wind ;  the  sun 
Of  noon  looked  down  and  saw  not  one. 

Up  rose  old  Barbara  Frietchie  then, 
Bowed  with  her  fourscore  years  and  ten; 

Bravest  of  all  in  Frederick  town, 

She  took  up  the  flag  the  men  hauled  down; 

In  her  attic-window  the  staff  she  set, 
To  show  that  one  heart  was  loyal  yet. 

Up  the  street  came  the  rebel  tread, 
Stonewall  Jackson  riding  ahead. 

Under  his  slouched  hat  left  and  right 
He  glanced;  the  old  flag  met  his  sight. 

"Halt  f"  —  the  dust-brown  ranks  stood  fast ; 
"  Fire  f"  —  out  blazed  the  rifle  blast. 

It  shivered  the  window  pane  and  sash  ; 
It  rent  the  banner  with  seam  and  gash. 

Quick  as  it  fell  from  the  broken  staff, 
Dame  Barbara  snatched  the  silken  scarf ; 


90  BARBARA    FRITCHIE. 

She  leaned  far  out  on  the  window-sill, 
And  shook  it  forth  with  a  royal  will. 

"  Shoot,  if  you  must,  this  old  gray  head, 
But  spare  your  country's  flag,"  she  said. 

A  shade  of  sadness,  a  blush  of  shame, 
Over  the  face  of  the  leader  came  ; 

The  nobler  nature  within  him  stirred 
To  life  at  that  woman's  deed  and  word. 

"Who  touches  a  hair  of  yon  gray  head 
Dies  like  a  dog !    March  on!  "  he  said. 

All  day  long  through  Frederick  street 
Sounded  the  tread  of  marching  feet; 

All  day  long  that  free  flag  tost 
Over  the  heads  of  the  rebel  host. 

Ever  its  torn  folds  rose  and  fell 

On  the  loyal  winds  that  loved  it  well ; 

And  through  the  hill  gaps  sunset  light 
Shone  over  it  with  a  warm  good-night. 

Barbara  Frietchie's  work  is  o'er, 

And  the  rebel  rides  on  his  raids  no  more. 


BARBARA   FRITCH1E.  91 

Honor  to  her !   and  let  a  tear 

Fall  for  her  sake  on  StonewalPs  bier. 

Over  Barbara  Frietchie's  grave, 
Flag  of  freedom  and  union  wave  ! 

Peace  and  order  and  beauty  draw 
Round  thy  symbol  of  light  and  law; 

And  ever  the  stars  above  look  down 
On  thy  stars  below  in  Frederick  town. 

JOHX  GKEENLEAF  WHITTIER. 


92  BARBARA   FRITCHIE. 


COMMENT  ON  THE  ITALICS. 

WHETHER  forty  flags  flapped  in  the 
morning  air  was  of  little  importance ; 
the  point  to  be  made  is  that  Barbara  did 
not  raise  her  flag  at  noon.  She  went 
up  to  the  window,  where  it  had  flut 
tered  for  months,  because  that  was  the 
only  window  that  commanded  the  ad 
vance,  and  it  was  at  five  o'clock  in  the 


morning. 


The  troops  came,  not  up  the  street,  but 
along  the  Bentztown  road ;  and  as  I 
say  elsewhere,  Stonewall  Jackson  was 
not  at  their  head.  Trusting  to  the  quiet 
of  the  town,  he  had  left  them,  to  do 
an  errand  of  his  own. 

The  irregular  firing  set  up  by  the 
angry  soldiers  did  not  shiver  either  pane 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  93 

or  sash  or  staff  ;  it  simply  dislodged  the 
staff,  when  Barbara  seized  it  and  waved 
it,  with  the  noble  words  the  poet  quotes. 

All  that  follows,  until  we  come  to 
Jackson's  order,  "  March  on  !  "  is  of 
course  unhistoric,  and  later  the  flag  must 
not  be  described  as  torn. 

When  I  first  got  to  the  bottom  of  the 
facts,  I  thought  the  poet  might  conform 
to  history  by  altering  a  few  lines  of  the 
ballad.  But  I  soon  saw  that  this  could 
not  be  done. 

We  must  leave  the  ballad  as  it  is. 
Stonewall  Jackson  will  not  suffer,  and 
Barbara  would  have  confronted  him  and 
a  "  volley  "  from  his  troops  with  the  im 
mortal  courage  Whittier  describes. 

C.  H.  D. 


.  __  Mrs.  Jackson's  denial  will  be  found  in 
the  "  Life  and  Letters  of  Gen.  T.  J.  Jackson,"  issued 
by  her  through  the  Harpers,  in  New  York,  1891. 


94  BARBARA   FRITCHIE. 


I/ENVOI. 

WHEN  I  corrected  the  first  proof  of 
this  little  volume,  I  hoped  to  carry  it 
happily  to  Whittier,  in  the  beautiful 
home  at  Hampton  Falls,  where  he  has 
passed,  as  he  lately  said,  "  the  happiest 
summer  of  his  life."  With  that  home 
my  childish  steps  had  been  familiar.  In 
its  old  garden,  made  sacred  now  by  his 
vanishing  presence,  I  had  found,  long 
years  ago,  the  reddest  currants,  and 
picked  the  ripest  plums. 

Alas  !  I  have  brought,  not  my  com 
pleted  work,  —  but  let  me  drop  one 
leaf  into  this  open  grave :  I  cannot 
drop  a  flower.  Why  have  we  gathered 
in  this  old  orchard  with  our  hearts 
aflame?  Why  have  gentle  and  simple 
crowded  the  Amesbury  streets  and  looked 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  95 

searchingly  into  the  faces  of  the  incom 
ing  crowd,  to  see  if  we  are  worthy  of 
the  noble  company  we  have  kept? 

The  heart  of  New  England  has  been 
moved  as  never  before. 

During  the  last  ten  years  this  genera 
tion  has  parted  with  almost  all  those 
who  made  our  common  life  beautiful 
and  dear. 

Statesmen,  soldiers,  orators,  poets,  and 
lovers  of  mankind,  precious  to  the  com 
mon  heart,  have  passed  behind  the  veil. 
Our  tears  are  even  now  falling  for  one 
whom  Whittier  loved,  —  Curtis,  the 
gracious,  the  serene,  the  all-helpful,  who 
never  touched  his  pen  save  to  move  a 
human  soul  or  right  a  public  wrong. 
So  bitterly  and  so  often  have  we  sor 
rowed  that  we  have  grown  callous  to 
our  pain. 

Why,  then,  does  this  last  parting  touch 
us  to  the  quick  ? 


96  BARBARA   FRITCH1E. 

It  was  the  glorious  function  of  Whit- 
tier  to  lift  us  nearer  to  the  Infinite 
Spirit,  to  keep  us  intent  upon  our  im 
mortal  destiny,  and  to  fill  us  with  that 
love  of  Beauty  which  is  the  love  of  God. 
Every  line  of  his  is  instinct  with  spiritual 
life ;  and  it  is  so  of  no  set  purpose,  only 
because  it  was  not  in  him  to  withhold 
himself. 

"  He  has  entered  into  eternal  life." 
Did  some  one  whisper  that?  Nay,  he 
was  born  into  that  life !  Its  "  clouds 
of  glory  "  encompassed  his  first  conscious 
being ;  he  knew  from  the  beginning  his 
infinite  inheritance,  —  "  Because  I  live, 
ye  shall  live  also."  We  feel  this  in  his 
verse  and  in  his  life.  It  is  an  open  les 
son.  What  has  been  deepest  in  our 
selves  has  responded  to  his  inspired 
touch.  We  loved  him  because  he  glori 
fied  life,  exalted  duty,  and  brought  us 
face  to  face  with  God.  This  is  the  in- 


BARBARA   FRITCHIE.  97 

evitable  function  of  any  artist,  be  he 
poet  or  painter,  who  is  to  leave  an  im 
mortal  memory.  Vice,  crime,  and  the 
loathsome  slime  of  distorted  lives  are 
transient.  He  who  lives  to  depict  these, 
whether  with  pen  or  brush  or  chisel, 
shall  pass  from  human  consciousness  as 
they  pass. 

The  Immortal  is  the  uplifting,  the 
All-Holy  alone.  We  are  told  that  we 
have  had  honest  politicians,  honest  law 
yers,  honest  merchants,  honest  preachers ; 
but  in  Whittier  we  had  that  "noblest 
work  of  God,"  —  an  honest  man.  His  in 
tegrity  was  vital.  It  did  not  appertain 
to  any  function,  to  any  casual  occupa 
tion  or  utterance.  It  was  the  man  him 
self,  and  met  in  its  entirety  every 
emergency  of  our  national  or  individual 
life.  He  thought  exactly  and  promptly ; 
as  he  thought  he  spoke  ;  as  he  spoke 
he  lived;  and  for  his  thought  he  could 


98  BARBARA   FR1TCHIE. 

easily   have   died,  had  God   asked   him 
to  do  so. 

This  is  my  leaf.  Let  it  fall,  not  only 
into  this  open  grave,  but,  folded  in  my 
words  may  it  not  also  fall  into  some 
young,  warm,  human  hearts,  —  hearts 
that  are  not  yet  old  enough  to  miss 
those  who  have  been  the  glory  of  our 
generation,  but  which  the  future  may 
kindle  into  a  divine  emulation  ? 

"Here  let  me  pause,  my  quest  forego: 
Enough  for  me  to  feel  and  know 
That  He  in  whom  the  cause  and  end, 
The  past  and  future,  meet  and  blend, 
Guards  not  archangel  feet  alone, 
But  deigns  to  guide  and  keep  my  own.77 

What  of  our  friend  ?     What  cheer  hath  he  ? 

"  Where  lingers  he  this  weary  while  ? 
Over  what  pleasant  fields  of  heaven 

Dawns  the  sweet  sunrise  of  his  smile  ? 

"  Still,  on  the  lips  of  all  we  question, 
The  finger  of  God's  silence  lies : 
Will  the  lost  hands  in  ours  be  folded, 
Will  the  shut  eyelids  ever  rise  ? 


BARBARA   FR1TCHIE.  99 

"  0  friend!  no  proof  beyond  this  yearning, 

This  outreach  of  our  hearts  we  need; 
God  will  not  mock  the  hope  He  giveth, 
No  love  He  prompts  shall  vainly  plead  !  " 

AMESBTJRY,  MASS.,  Sept.  10,  1892. 


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